The non-traded REIT raised over $454 million in new capital and launched a $3 billion DST program while fully honoring all investor repurchase requests.

March 23, 2026

Widening Loss Driven by Troubled Office Loan

Nuveen Global Cities REIT, Inc. reported a net loss attributable to common stockholders of approximately $9.7 million for the year ended December 31, 2025, widening from a $1.6 million loss in the prior year. The Maryland-based, non-traded real estate investment trust, which invests in properties across global cities, saw its net asset value per share continue a multi-year slide even as it expanded its portfolio and launched new capital-raising initiatives.

The company’s Class I shares ended December at an NAV of $11.28 per share, down from $11.59 a year earlier and well below the $12.78 reported at the start of 2023. Since the beginning of 2023, Class I NAV has declined roughly 11.7 percent, reflecting broader challenges in commercial real estate valuations.

Total revenues for 2025 reached $212 million, up from $206.2 million the year before, driven primarily by a $9.8 million increase in rental revenue to $185.3 million. That growth was partially offset by a nearly $4 million decline in commercial mortgage loan income, which fell to $26.7 million as several loans were paid off and the company wrote off interest income on a troubled office loan in Framingham, Massachusetts.

The 9-90 Corporate Center senior and mezzanine loans, totaling approximately $83 million in principal, were placed on nonaccrual status during 2025 after the borrower failed to repay at maturity. The company recorded an unrealized loss of $9.1 million on its commercial mortgage loan portfolio, a sharp reversal from the $2.3 million unrealized gain posted in 2024. The deterioration of this single office investment significantly weighed on overall results.

Expenses and Advisory Fees

Total expenses rose modestly to $185.8 million from $180 million, with increases across rental property operating costs, advisory fees, and depreciation. The advisory fee paid to the company’s external manager, Nuveen Real Estate Global Cities Advisors, reached $30.9 million for the year, calculated as 1.25 percent of NAV for most share classes and 0.65 percent for Class N shares held primarily by parent company TIAA.

Portfolio Expansion and New Acquisitions

Nuveen Global Cities REIT completed four property acquisitions during 2025 totaling $110.5 million. These included an industrial warehouse in Salt Lake City, a multifamily asset in Tokyo, additional multifamily properties in Copenhagen, and a grocery-anchored retail center in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania. The company also originated two new commercial mortgage loans totaling $136.7 million, secured by self-storage and industrial properties.

The REIT’s portfolio encompassed 465 investment properties as of year-end, spanning industrial, multifamily, healthcare, retail, office, self-storage, and single-family housing sectors. Overall portfolio occupancy stood at 92 percent. Industrial properties, the largest allocation, were 91 percent occupied, while multifamily assets reached 96 percent and healthcare properties hit 95 percent. The office segment, comprising just three properties, reported 88 percent occupancy amid continued headwinds from remote work trends.

New DST Program Launches

A notable development during the year was the June 2025 launch of the company’s DST Program, a private placement initiative to issue and sell up to $3 billion in beneficial interests in Delaware statutory trusts holding real properties. The program targets accredited investors seeking Section 1031 like-kind exchange opportunities. By year-end, the initiative had raised $26.6 million in proceeds, representing an early-stage effort to diversify capital sources beyond the traditional non-traded REIT offering structure.

Capital Activity and Repurchases

Capital activity remained robust, with the company raising $454.9 million in gross proceeds from share sales during 2025. The company fully satisfied all share repurchase requests for the year, totaling $272.8 million across all share classes. TIAA, the company’s ultimate parent through its Nuveen subsidiary, repurchased 5.85 million Class N shares worth $70 million during the period, reducing its holdings to approximately 23.9 million shares valued at $280.4 million.

Distribution Sustainability Questions

The company’s distribution policy continued with monthly payments, though the tax characterization of those distributions raises questions about sustainability. For the 2025 tax year, only 10 percent of distributions constituted ordinary income, with the remaining 90 percent classified as return of capital. That represents a slight improvement from 2024, when 91 percent was return of capital, but remains a signal that the REIT is not generating sufficient taxable income to fully cover its distributions from operations. The company funded approximately 63 percent of its $118.5 million in total distributions from operating cash flows, with the remaining 37 percent sourced from debt and financing proceeds.

Rising Leverage

Leverage increased during the year as the company expanded its credit facility. In September 2025, the unsecured revolving credit agreement was amended to provide $665 million in aggregate commitments, up from $455 million previously. As of December 31, total indebtedness stood at $702.7 million, compared to $588.4 million a year earlier. The company’s target leverage ratio of 30 to 50 percent of gross real estate assets provides room for additional borrowing.

Operational Metrics and Liquidity

The company reported adjusted funds from operations of $79.4 million for the year, up from $74.4 million in 2024, suggesting improving core operational performance when excluding depreciation, unrealized valuation changes, and other non-cash items. Same-property net operating income, however, dipped slightly to $105.2 million from $106.5 million, as modest revenue gains were more than offset by rising operating expenses, particularly in healthcare and office properties.

Nuveen Global Cities REIT operates with approximately $558 million in total liquidity, including $271 million in undrawn credit facility capacity, $243 million in liquid securities investments, and $44.6 million in cash. The company has no employees and is entirely managed by its external advisor, which draws on Nuveen Real Estate’s global platform of approximately $137 billion in real estate assets under management.

As of early 2026, the company had already completed two additional acquisitions — a light industrial facility near Atlanta for $14.8 million and a grocery-anchored retail property near Chicago for $27 million — signaling continued portfolio expansion into the new year.